Tuesday, July 4 2006 12:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Pakistan's major opposition party Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has alleged that a 'plot' has been hatched in London to kill its exiled leader Altaf Hussain.

Alleging that a killer gang had been dispatched from Pakistan, MQM urged President Pervez Musharraf and the government to take note of the threat to Hussain's life and take measures to protect him, reported The News.

MQM's coordination committee in-charge Anwar Alam told reporters in Karachi that 'a suspicious looking bearded man' had on June 30 managed to enter Hussain's room at the party's international secretariat in London.

Alam said he had received credible information that forces opposing the MQM had plotted a conspiracy to assassinate MQM founder Altaf Hussain and in that connection 'a criminal gang' was sent from Pakistan to London to carry out the crime.

He said the MQM had informed Scotland Yard and the British authorities concerned of the incident.

Other major groupings are planning their moves against Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, but MQM, a party principally of those who migrated from India at the time of the partition in 1947, has kept its options open.